Vintage Collectors' Club - Two Bits

I've said it before, and I know I will say it again....

I LOVE BREYER'S VINTAGE COLLECTORS' CLUB!!!

Here is the first offering for 2015.

Two Bits, #712141, $135, Breyer, 2/2015.

Here is the advertisement from Breyer.

Muscled/Less Muscled QH Gelding

Model Horse Blab is an excellent place to get information, and often what I read sends me speeding upstairs to check my models for a particular variation or previously unnoticed variation. The thread about variations was no diferent. Andrea Gurdon, a knowledgeable collector, (but no Sande Schneider) weighed in on a question about Breyer's Quarter Horse Gelding.

Here's what she said:


The "Supermuscled" Quarter Horse was really early - my Buckskin with eyewhites is one. This is the best photo I came come up with in a pinch:

The barrel is where the bulk of the changes can be most clearly seen. Here's the SR Matte Bay:

Aside from the muscles being toned down, almost all the muscle definition on his barrel is removed and he got a tummy tuck! The muscle striations on the opposite side of his neck are also buffed away.

There is a third variation of this mold that's in between the two. I don't have all three in front of me right now to point them out, point by point though.


I have examined my five QH geldings, and I am pretty certain that my early bay one is a "supermuscled" piece.

Facial Markings

(From Breyer History Diva, 2009.)

While cleaning up some of the newest acquisitions for BreyerFest, I ran across another one of those “how could I have not seen that before” observations. Take a look at these two handsome boys: a nice, if run-of-the-mill Appaloosa Gelding, and a darker than average El Pastor. Notice something peculiar?


Yep, same star, used on completely different molds. For comparison, here's the star on the Chalky El Pastor I also happened to pick up Sunday morning (yes, ladies, he'll also be on the saleslist):


Almost all Breyer models show some variation in their masking, and several Breyers from the 1970s and 1980s are notable for their facial marking variations: the original releases of both the Yearling and the Saddlebred Weanling are actually quite notorious for it. (At least four known for the Yearling, and about …. a kajillion for the Weanling.) But I hadn't thought they actually reused painting masks on completely different molds. I always thought they were uniquely designed for each mold.

On Traditionals, anyway. Now, I had known for quite some time that Breyer had reused some of the star and blaze masks on the Classic molds, particularly the Racehorses, but I chalked that up to (a) mold confusion among the painters at the factory, and (b) the fact that the molds share enough similarities in size, shape and style that any minor inconsistencies in the fit could be compensated for. It never occurred to me that Breyer considered the facial masks on the Traditionals interchangeable as well.

But I just happened to have these guys standing next to each other in the bath assembly line, and there was the evidence, staring me right in the face.

It makes sense, though: those small masks could be easily lost or damaged, and it's cheaper to reuse what you have on hand than create another one. Faces are also relatively “flat:” issues of fit and overspray would be relatively minor. (Though minimizing overspray back then wasn't high on Breyer's list of priorities, either.)